tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5754886201048068706.post9034190653060950892..comments2019-05-09T20:35:06.471-07:00Comments on Thought-Drive: Temporarily waving the sap banJ. E. Cammonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16330684677612896530noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5754886201048068706.post-59841242575655294472010-02-15T13:16:06.595-08:002010-02-15T13:16:06.595-08:00I think that I've gotten it right multiple tim...I think that I've gotten it right multiple times. The problem was I then got it wrong an equal number of times. The real trick is failing to get it wrong that last time.<br /><br />And I say that the concept of love as a "game" dates from an unfortunate social era, and only ever applied to men, who have built a society to let them avoid consequences. I prefer the song that says love is a battlefield.<br /><br />Everyone who's anyone agrees that love is good, but that's not everyone. Maybe you're not familiar with Wagner's <em>Ring of the Nibelung</em>. It's long and complicated, but the action mostly revolves around the eponymous ring, which gives its owner...an unclear and unspecified power, a "mastery" over anyone, or of the entire world. It can only be made from a certain lump of gold, which can only first be touched by the man (yeah) who will utterly renounce love. And there's a guy who does it, of course, and though everyone finds him repulsive, they all want to take the ring from him, to get the power without paying the price, and in brief (it's the whole second half of an titanically long opera), doing this ruins everything...actually, there's a <em>fantastic</em> two-volume graphic novel that you might find rewarding.<br /><br />Wagner was a sunovabitch, but I think there may be a useful metaphor there: some people actually do live without love or empathy, and with the right circumstances, that can give them an immense advantage. We detest them, and are jealous of their successes, but trying to follow them while still having human feelings leads rapidly to self-destruction. And I didn't get that just from reading Wagner.<br /><br />Also, it's "waiving."Nick Novitskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08863651199447917923noreply@blogger.com